On the Fence About Implants and Liposuction

I didn’t realize the powerful emotional plus of having my breasts removed and my reconstruction from my abdominal tissue done concurrently. You go to sleep and wake up with perfectly round mounds where they just removed your breasts (after a grueling surgery to be honest). At first, my post surgery breasts looked full and happy. But at six weeks out, the swelling is decreasing and the radiated breast has shrunken significantly more than the other (all normal occurrences).

So, now that I have the good fortune to have a smaller tummy and actual breasts from that tissue, I should just feel lucky, right? My plastic surgeon is so excited to now place implants in my breast (to level them out and give them a slight boost) and do liposuction on my waist to even out the newly created side bumps from my shrunken tummy and the same old hips. I, on the other hand, just want to be well for a little while. Should I just be grateful and move on with the areola and nipple final touch? Or as my doctor recommends, finish the “fun part” – an actual quote.

I told him if it weren’t for breast cancer, I would never (and I hate to say never, so I would most likely not ever) be seen in a plastic surgeon’s office. But, he said, since you ARE here, why not take advantage of the fact that insurance will pay for most of this? Now the first time I had breast cancer, my insurance in a very long story did not cover any of my treatment. This time I am actually blessed with fairly decent insurance having been over five years out of treatment.

The bigger question for me is actually about my vanity. I said and I thought I meant that I was happy just to have breasts, without the horizontal scars of past surgeries. But he tempted me with those alluring photos of women with post-surgery, post-breast cancer hourglass beautiful bodies. And so, I am having a difficult time deciding what is right for me. I am a 42-year-old woman with a hopefully long life ahead of me, so am I content to live with my body the way it currently looks? Someone said to me today, “If you squint, it looks just like you have nipples!” What would you do if you were me?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suzette Lipscomb

Suzette Lipscomb has done the cancer dance twice in her young life. Originally diagnosed with an aggressive form of invasive ductal breast cancer at 36, she endured six long months of chemotherapy and then...read more

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